Addition To Lang 36 Original

I’ve cooked GOOD TRI-TIP ROASTS on my Lang 36 patio. It would be BETTER cooked on a Lang 36 hybrid grill but the absolute BEST way to cook a tri-tip is on a SANTA MARIA STYLE GRILL over a bed of oak coals.

When I ordered my Lang smoker, I wish I’d invested another $300 and purchased a Lang 36 Hybrid but I didn’t follow Ben’s advise and completely think through my BBQ needs but “you don’t know what you don’t know”. As you can see, I found an alternative, which fits perfectly on the fire box.

A TRI-TIP is a “triangle” piece of meat from the bottom sirloin, which is plentiful in the southwest but difficult to obtain in other parts of the US. If it’s not available in your neck of the woods, make friends with your local butcher. Every time my local butcher cuts me a great cut of meat I fill out a store questionnaire complimenting him and he gets a $25 bonus – obviously he takes good care of me!! A tri-tip substitute is a 2” well marbled sirloin steak or a London broil.

Santa Maria style cooking was developed by vacqueros (Mexican cowboys) in Santa Maria, Ca, which is located on the central coast of Ca. The tri-tip is served with salsa, green salad, French bread dipped in melted butter and pinquito beans. Tri-tip is easy to cook, and in my opinion, tastes as good as prime rib. No sauce is used as the meat tastes great on its own and the rub consists of salt, pepper, garlic powder and parsley blend (I use Susie Q brand). You start the cook with the grate near the hot oak coals and then raise the grate to finish the cook. The cook takes about 1 hour and you should let the meat rest for at least 15 minutes before serving and cut ACROSS the grain – if you cut WITH the grain it will be stringy and hard to chew.

Google “santa maria style BBQ” to see what I’m talking about.

Wood River BBQ Team

I've got to find out what happened to the pictures??

Wood River BBQ Team

Thanks to J'villegrill we figured out how to post picture. Thank you mate!!

J'ville Grill

Sweet looking Santa Maria grill you got there. Did Lang put that on there for you or was it added by someone else?

Wood River BBQ Team

I purchased the grill from a company in Santa Maria, Ca. Their web site is www.santamariagrills.com. My model is the "tailgater" and it fits nicely on my fire box.

Before I stumbled on the Santa Maria grill, I was attempting to purchase the warmer box as an after purchase item but Ben Lang advised me it would be way to expensive with shipping, the need for a large counter weight and welding.

I'll get more use out of the Santa Maria grill than I would from the warming box. Actually, the warming box and the grill would have worked together as this grill would fit nicely on the shelf at the other end of the Lang 36 original. The grill will look better once I paint it with Hi temp glass black.

Midwest Freak

looks to be a nice add to your smoker .

mr.piggy

hey wr bbq looks great how do you empty spent charcoal tks v

[quote="Wood River BBQ Team:2149"]I purchased the grill from a company in Santa Maria, Ca. Their web site is www.santamariagrills.com. My model is the "tailgater" and it fits nicely on my fire box.

Before I stumbled on the Santa Maria grill, I was attempting to purchase the warmer box as an after purchase item but Ben Lang advised me it would be way to expensive with shipping, the need for a large counter weight and welding.

I'll get more use out of the Santa Maria grill than I would from the warming box. Actually, the warming box and the grill would have worked together as this grill would fit nicely on the shelf at the other end of the Lang 36 original. The grill will look better once I paint it with Hi temp glass black.[/quote]

mr.piggy

hey wood river bbq great looking unit I might order mine only one question how do you remove the ash tks vincent

Wood River BBQ Team

Vincent: The first thing I did was build a charcoal grate similiar to the one they sell for $38 plus $28 shipping (to Tucson) except my homemade grate cost less than 1/2 of that. The grate does 2 things - it allows for better draft and, to answer your question, it allows for easy clean up because most of the oak and lump charcoal ash is contained on the grate. The ash remainder is easy to scoop up or remove with a shop vac. I also use a shop vac to vacum up the remainder of ash residue from the firebox on my Lang 36.

The bottom of the unit is easy to get to - all you need to do is crank the cooking grate to the top of the unit. You don't even have to do that as the cooking grate is removable. Additionally, there's a hole in the bottom of the unit so I could remove the unit from the Lang (it only weighs about 55lbs) and wash out the ash residue with a hose.

Google "Santa Maria style cooking" and "how to cook and slice a tri-tip" to see what this style of cooking is all about. It's very popular in the South West. Chicken also cook great on this unit.

My friends and neighbors think the whole rig (Lang 36 and SM Grill) look trick and think it's the way the whole thing came from Lang. I let them think what they want!!

Don Gillette (Wood River BBQ Team)

mr.piggy

hi don, thanks for getting back to me. your unit looks great I am going to look in to one of the grills . after reading your response about cleaning the unit out, is no big deal. yea I can use a 3 inch wide scraper to remove any ash and then hose it down. I also have a 36 patio. thanks once again vincent